Colitis.

The disability caused by proctitis or colitis has been assessed among patients attending a hospital outpatient clinic. Although bowel frequency was a common and troublesome symptom, urgency of defaecation with a tendency to precipitate incontinence was a major factor limiting working life and leisure and social activities. Abdominal or rectal pain and lassitude were the other main symptoms. In every aspect of life studied the disability was as great for patients with proctitis or distal colitis as for those with more extensive inflammation of the colon. As a result of symptoms about a fifth of the patients had a reduced earning capacity and quarter were restricted in their social or leisure activities even when symptoms were at their least bad. The social disability of proctitis or colitis may be underestimated because patients do not mention their fear of incontinence and because their complaint of lassitude does not always correlate with the apparent activity or extent of the disease.